Film Review: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’
★★★☆☆ Kiwi filmmaker Peter Jackson effectively revolutionised fantasy cinema with his awe-inspiring The Lord of the Rings series. Eleven years later, Jackson returns to Middle...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★★☆☆ Kiwi filmmaker Peter Jackson effectively revolutionised fantasy cinema with his awe-inspiring The Lord of the Rings series. Eleven years later, Jackson returns to Middle...
★★★☆☆ When British Army officer Pat Reid approached the bleached white foundations of Colditz Castle, he was probably not speculating which actor would later...
★★★★☆ When Sundog Pictures, the producers of Cosmo Feilding-Mellen’s activist documentary Breaking the Taboo (2011), wrote to Morgan Freeman asking him to narrate their...
★★★★☆ December sees London’s BFI Southbank pay tribute to a true cinematic icon and all-round American sweetheart, Doris Day. The actress (now in her...
★★★☆☆ Wu-Tang Clan member RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) walks a fine line between blank parody and loving homage to the...
★★☆☆☆ A release somewhat symptomatic of what has been a poor week for new theatrical features, Alex Barrett’s micro budget British drama Life Just...
Today it was announced that multiplex chain Cineworld had acquired Picturehouse Cinemas, a company renowned for their quality programming showcasing the best of independent,...
★★★★☆ Awash with a macabre Bacchian tone, Gilles Legrand’s intense family drama You Will Be My Son (Tu Seras Mon Fils, 2011) sees renowned...